They Were Always LIARS !

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 69, 18 April 1941, Page 2

They Were Always LIARS !

Did the Germans l.e a lot in the last war? They did. Enough to make it plain that lying is an old German custom.

Take a few big events in the Kaiser’s war and see what the Germans had to say about them at the time.

Zeebrugge, for example. According to the German communique of the following day, “the . enterprise was -frustrated . . . Beyond damage caused to the Mole by a torpedo hit, our harbour works' and coastal batteries are quite undamaged. Of our naval forces only one torpedo-boat suffered damage of the lightest character. Our casualties are small.”

Not mentioned was the German destroyer that the British force tor pedoed on its way home!

Our losses? “Terrific,” said the Germans. Three heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, three destroyers and a considerable number of torpedoboats. '

They were right about the heavy cruisersbut they did not let it be known, of course, that these were three ancient vessels loaded with concrete and sunk m the harbour entrance by. the British themselves! Our only actual losses were one .destroyer, two motor-boats and two motor-launches.

Jutland gave the Germans an even better opportunity for some official cooking of figures.. In this engagement they claimed they had sunk one battleship, one cruiser and five destroyers more than they really had.

The battleship, incidentally, was named as the Warspite: the same Warspite which rose out of Davy Jones’s locker to give the Nazis a heap of trouble, at Narvick last year! In point of fact, no British battleship was lost at Jutland.

The result of the battle was given out as an overwhelming victory for the* fleet that scampered home never to put out to sea again during the war. To support’this claim was an understatement of German losses that would have done even Goebbels credit.

These were given as “the small cruiser Wiesbaden and the Pommern. The cruiser Frauenlob is missing.” Note how carefully the communique avoided mentioning that the Pommern was a 13,000-ton battleship. ’

Over and above the casualties they admitted, the Germans lost a battle-cruiser, two light cruisers and five destroyers at Jutland.

It’s equally amusing now to read of the official German reaction to Britain’s introduction of the tank on September 15, 1916. As all the world now knows, the appearance of the first tanks had a most demoralizing effect on the German troops in the Battle of the Somme, and enabled the British forces to make their biggest gains in a single operation since the battle began.

How did the Germans acknowledge that rout? Said their communique of September 15: “An attempt by considerable English forces to capture our salient to the south of Thiepval failed.” Right up to the Armistice the German people were kept blissfully deluded that victory was well in sight. Thus on November 8 ; 1918 when Germany had sued for peace, the High Command concealed its despair behind this encouraging bulletin: “The French, who again obtained a footing on the east bank of the Scheldt, were thrown back across the river by a counter-attack. Between the Scheldt and the Meuse we continued our movements according to plan Rearguard actions developed which ended everywhere with the repulse of the enemy.

The final communique, dated November 11, 1918, began with a joyful announcement that desperate American attacks east of the Meuse had been iepu sed. It went on to mention regiments that had distinguished themselves m the recent fighting. Lastly, as a kind of afterthought, the communique added. As a result of the signing of the Armistice Treaty hostilities were suspended this afternoon on all fronts.” Y ’' No wonder the end came as a pulverising shock to millions of the Ger man pubhe! Just as the end of this war will: because Goebbels and his their predecessors eV6 " ‘° ™ ldly ext ™vagant lying of